The Victoria period consists of the reigning years of Queen Victoria, the longest reigning monarch in the history of Britain so far. During the reign of Queen Victoria, the 19th century saw the progress of the industrial revolution and the expansion of the British Empire.
Other social developments included the birth of Democracy, Feminism, and the Unionization of workers, Socialism, and Marxism.
Most importantly the culture and values of Britain also developed, in which established the ideologies of “Victorian Respectability”, ethics, and norms of society. More broadly, Victorianism embodied attention to proper "character" and the maintenance of "respectability," the public display of one's inner morality and is what sharpened the division between the working class, and the middle classes.
Victorianism defines the absolute notions of right and wrong, thus individuals were judged accordingly; Victorians measured the success of their civilization according to its adherence to moral law. While Victorian values were closely linked with Puritanism and the lessons of the bible, as guidance or shaping it was also intertwined in complex hypocrisies. These contradictions were closely observed by the arts and literature movements within the Victorian era; literature mainly accounted the social conditions, corruption, power struggles, inequality, racism, and exploitation.
For this essay I am going to analyse three texts in particular; Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
The above novels analyse the Victorian era, and challenge its system in context, Through the use of realistic characters struggling within Victorian society, experiencing it in different forms whether it may be trough gender, age, or class.
All three tales, through the various situations, and characters encountered, tell of the development of their identity and understanding.
Oliver’s life begins immediately with his...